Enemies, Old and New
by PrincessLala95
Summary: Set at the beginning of Book 3: The End of Magic, a young hero finds an unfamiliar magical presence drawing her to confront the demons of her past. Meanwhile, fighting the monsters of her present, she must save Lore as she has time and time again. But can she balance these two monumental tasks while still securing a peaceful future?


The young hero's figure was trembling as she made her way up the hill.

Her violet robes fluttered around her slender figure and the wind gently caressed her light golden curls. Her blue eyes had a certain sadness to them as she gazed upon the magnificent tower atop the hill.

Outside the tower, she saw a crowd of men and women in their gleaming armour, each wielding their powerful weapons. The group of them was training, and their leader stood, watching over them.

"Leah?" asked the leader as his gaze fell upon the young DragonMage. She stared at him. She recognized him from somewhere, from a life long ago, from a battle...

"Kain," breathed Leah finally, and he quickly came running over. His strong arms wrapped around the tiny blonde and she collapsed into him.

"By the avatars, Leah, I can't believe you're here," said Kain, pulling back. He carefully held the hero upright, gazing towards her. "You need to eat something, and you must rest."

"Not at the inn here," Leah said softly, gazing down the hill in the direction of Serenity's Inn. "I spoke with Serenity already. She doesn't think it wise...The Rose...they'll find me..."

"Oh!" exclaimed Kain, his eyes widening. "Of course...they'd be looking for you. Word is slowly spreading that you're alive and well and, well...unfrozen..."

"Apparently I have Warlic to thank for that?"

"Perhaps another time," murmured Kain slowly. "Come on, Leah, let's get you rested and fed. You look awful.

"  
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," muttered the hero as Kain helped her towards the doors.

Leah lay quietly on one of the little cots in the tower chambers. She couldn't sleep; something felt wrong. She hadn't been on her way up the hill to visit with the guardians. She had someplace else she needed to go. Someone else she needed to see.

"Guardian Kain?" came a voice outside her room. "Is she here?"

"Yes," answered Kain; he stood guard over Leah's room while she slept.

"May I...may I see her?"

"No, she needs to rest," Kain replied.

"She's been resting for the past many years since she was frozen, Kain. Still, unmoving... Leah needs to move about, to be free and limber and regain control of her own body."

"You didn't see her when she arrived here. She was in no fit state to do much but rest."

"I'll take your word for it..."

Leah knew that she recognized the voice with whom Kain was speaking...but she simply couldn't figure it out.

"The Rose will stop at nothing to find her once they learn of her presence in Lore." Kain said after a moment of silence.

"I know that."

"We need to protect her...somehow, in some way..."

"And you know that everybody in Lore who knew her will pitch in."

"Not everybody..."

"Guardian Kain?!" called a voice from nearby, interrupting their conversation. Leah cringed, disappointed; she had wanted them to continue. Not every one of her old friends wanted to help her? Who was there that was against her? Had friends of hers sided...with the Rose?

She heard two sets of footsteps leaving their post outside her room, clearly in response to the person that had called for Kain. Perhaps something was wrong. Leah slowly shifted into a sitting position, listening. She heard nothing more.

Brushing aside the covers, Leah rose from the bed and wandered over to the window. She leant out, gazing across the water. The stars twinkled in the dark sky and the harbour glistened in the soft light of the moon. As Leah's gaze shifted, though, she noticed something else she hadn't seen there before: Sepulchure's fortress, in ruins, still in the water.

_After all these years?_

Leah's gaze fell upon the majestic griffin that stood on the cliff. A saddle rested on his back so that he could be ridden from place to place. That was why the hero was here. Not to visit with old friends, rather, old enemies. Only one person had been on Leah's mind since returning. It wasn't Artix, or Warlic, or Rolith, or Zhoom, or Ash, or Galanoth, or Kain...

_Sepulchure..._

What had become of him? Why did Leah still feel that connection to her old enemy when she had seen him being destroyed herself? Something was drawing her, pulling her, begging her to go to him...but how could Leah go to a man who had been killed? A man who no longer existed but in the history books in the libraries of Lore?

Leah looked towards the door. There was no sound from the other side. Kain had left. And she had to leave, too.

Her pale hand curled softly around the knob and gave it a twist. It swung open, creaking gently, and Leah cringed at the sound. No footsteps. She was fine.

She slipped out of her room, shutting the door behind her so Kain wouldn't notice her absence when he returned. As silently as she could, her wings fluttering delicately behind her, Leah made her way towards the front entrance.

"And if they approach from the East?" came Kain's voice, and Leah froze. He was in the strategy room, a room through which she had intended to pass.

"Hmm," said another voice, a guardian whose name Leah did not know.

Leah turned and quickly made her way away from the strategy room. There were more stairs on the other side of the tower, and she hurried to them and began her descent.

Slipping out the front door when she had reached the bottom, Leah hurried silently towards the griffin. Her feet were soundless as they hit the soft grass beneath her, and the griffin shifted its gaze towards her as she neared it. It seemed to recognize her. Carefully, it lowered itself so that she could climb up, carefully seating herself in the saddle, her hands gently grasping the beast's neck.

_"Leah?_" came a tiny voice in her mind, and Leah froze.

_"Lavender?_" she responded wordlessly, simply thinking the word, knowing that the dragon would hear her.

_"Take me with you."_

_"I cannot. I will return though, I promise."_

_"I don't want to be without you."_

Tears came to Leah's eyes, but she shook her head.

_"You've waited this long. The people of Falconreach have kept you safe and comfortable. I won't be long."_

_"Promise me, Leah. Promise that you'll return and that we'll never be apart again."_

Leah's pale fingers came up to softly touch the amulet that dangled over her chest. It was beautiful; a gleaming red stone nestled between the wings of a golden dragon. It was what allowed Leah to have her connection to Lavender, what allowed her to understand Draconic, what allowed her to be a DragonLord.

_"I promise, Lavender."_

_"Then go, and do what you need to do."_

Leah smiled as she heard these words penetrate her mind. She leant forwards and whispered directions to the griffin. The Badlands? Leah didn't even know that she had to go there, but the words left her lips in an instant.

The beast spread its wide wings and they pounded against the air as it rose from the cliff, beginning its journey. Leah held on tightly, closing her eyes as they flew. She didn't know whether or not she actually wanted to go to the Badlands, but she had no choice now.


End file.
